You have to be able to be ‘swept away’ by the film

The best directors are masters of creating an illusionary reality. They use sound and light to create a La-la Land: an imaginary world that we experience as though it's an actual reality. When we get ‘swept away’ by a movie, we get drawn into the director's illusionary world and experience it as real. We temporarily ‘forget’ that the characters and events we're experiencing are light and shadows on a screen. We get drawn into the director's illusionary world, and relate to the characters and events as though they're really happening. When someone doesn't get swept away by a film, you'll hear them say something like, ‘I couldn't buy it’ or ‘I couldn't get into it’. They weren't ‘fooled’ by the illusionary reality, so couldn't suspend their disbelief and enter into the director's La-la Land.

You have to be able to ‘wake up’ from the film's illusionary reality

While it's wonderful to be swept away by a film, we also have to be able to wake up to the fact that it's an illusion (otherwise you'd phone the fire department if flames appeared on the screen). Our ability to fall out of the director's La-la Land is a function of our understanding of the nature of movies. You developed this understanding at a very early age and today, your ability to ‘wake up’ from the film is automatic. Of course, little children don't yet understand the nature of film – that's why it's important to be selective about what they watch. Telling a child who doesn't understand the nature of film that ‘it's just a movie’ has no effect. It's your embodied understanding that allows you to wake up from the illusion and return to reality. Of course, you never actually left reality; you just thought you did.

Enjoying a movie requires an oscillation between these two positions; being swept away by the film's illusionary reality, occasionally punctuated by waking up to the fact that it's just a movie. This is exactly the same kind of oscillation you need to enjoy your life, to wake up from FATS and experience CHE states of mind, more and more of the time.

You have to be able to be ‘swept away’ by the principle of THOUGHT

The principle of THOUGHT is the best film director in the world. It creates a multi-sensory illusionary reality that we bring to life using the principle of CONSCIOUSNESS and experience as real. When we're moved by the sight of a beautiful sunrise, filled up with love for someone we care about or inspired by a leader's visionary words, we've been swept away by the principle of THOUGHT. Those beautiful feelings are coming from THOUGHT taking form in the moment within you, but it often seems like they're coming from the sunrise, the leader or the loved one. When we're anxious about a future appointment, worried about someone we care about or angry about someone's past behaviours, we've been swept away by the principle of THOUGHT. Those uncomfortable feelings are coming from THOUGHT taking form in the moment, but it seems like they're coming from somewhere other than THOUGHT; from the appointment, the person we're concerned about or the wrongdoer's behaviours. This is the illusionary power of THOUGHT.

You have to be able to ‘wake up’ from THOUGHT's illusory reality

We all get swept away by THOUGHT, but we all have the power to wake up from THOUGHT's illusory reality; to fall out of the La-La Land of our contaminated thinking, and fall present to the moment. We've all had the experience of being very worried about something before going to sleep, then waking up the next morning wondering how we'd managed to get so bothered about it. Little children intuitively grasp the illusory nature of THOUGHT, able to flit from sobbing with misery to giggling with joy in the blink of an eye. In any moment, we can realize that we're feeling THOUGHT taking form, and not what we're thinking about. The instant this happens, we fall out of the La-la Land of our misunderstanding, and ‘fall awake’ to the present.

A rich, enjoyable experience of life relies on an oscillation between the two positions mentioned above; getting swept away by the principle of THOUGHT in the moment, then waking up to the illusory nature of THOUGHT. And as you continue to explore the principles behind clarity, your understanding of the deceptive and illusory nature of THOUGHT will allow you to enjoy this oscillation more and more. And it turns out that's the only thing you need to live a life you love and experience high-performance states of mind, more of the time.

The one thing you need to enjoy a movie is an understanding of the nature of film.

The one thing you need to enjoy your life is an understanding of the nature of THOUGHT.

So what is the nature of THOUGHT?

In Chapter 5, I introduced you to cognitive neuroscientist Donald Hoffman's ‘interface theory’ of perception. Once again, we can think of time and space as our desktop, and the various ‘objects’ in our world as symbols or icons on that desktop. You can think of the principle of THOUGHT as being like the ‘pixels’ of our perception; the creative energy that ‘renders’ the desktop (space and time), as well as the objects we perceive on that desktop (e.g. people, places, things, our own bodies, our self-images, the countless thoughts that pass through our minds each day). The principle of CONSCIOUSNESS is like the computer's screen, giving you an experience of the THOUGHT-generated reality you're creating in the moment. All of this is powered by the principle of MIND, the intelligent energy behind life. The formless principles behind clarity are at your very core; the essence of your being…

You were born into the principle of THOUGHT just as you were born into the principle of gravity.

You're living in a THOUGHT-generated perceptual reality and experiencing it as an actual reality.

And remember; you're built for reality; you're optimized for results. The CLARITY^® model is subtractive; as your understanding of these principles continues to deepen, it takes things off your mind, giving you less to think about.

We started this chapter with Usain Bolt explaining how he avoids over-thinking prior to a race; that he'll have what he needs when he needs it. He went on to say, ‘My mind automatically turns on to what I have got to do when I need it to. So, when I’m in the blocks, it switches on. I say to myself, “I gotta run now – let's do this”. And everything I have worked on for so long just comes together'.

So what enables a person to have such a high level of confidence in and reliance on the mind's self-clearing ability, and all the other innate capacities for creating results?